Get ready to pay more at the commissary

Fort Carson's commissary, opened in 2012, is one of the largest and most modern in the military. (Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette file)

The often-touted 30 percent average savings that troops and families enjoy in military commissaries would shrink considerably under the Pentagon’s plan to slash taxpayer subsidies for the stores by two-thirds, the Military Times reports.

But the plan would reduce the annual taxpayer subsidy for the Defense Commissary Agency by $1 billion over three years, from the current $1.4 billion to $400 million. Only stores that are overseas and in remote locations would continue to receive direct subsidies.

Under the plan, patrons would have to pay higher prices in order to fund the stores’ operations — such as employee salaries, the biggest cost at about $750 million a year. Most of the stocking of shelves is already done by industry.